Mayim Bialik. Image by Getty Images

“I wish I could have told my younger self: something will work,” Mayim Bialik says in a strikingly forthright video for the Child Mind Institute.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month — and while an “awareness months” can be a cutesy panacea, in the case of mental health, awareness saves lives. Belief that psychological problems are signs of weakness or are embarrassing prevent people from seeking medical and psychological attention.

And as long as there is a stigma against therapy, psychiatric medication, and talking about mental health struggles, there will be more suffering and death.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

So Mayim Bialik’s Thursday video, made for the #MyYoungerSelf campaign, in which celebrities de-stigmatize their mental wellness issues by addressing their young selves, is a life-saver.

With deep compassion, Bialik zeroes in on an often unspoken problem — even when sufferers do seek help, because psychiatry and psychology are relatively new and misunderstood fields, finding what Bialik calls “the right kind of help for you” can feel excruciating.

Bialik speaks about waiting “years” to find the right help for her depression. “I had this notion when I was younger,” she says, “That if something didn’t work once — or if a therapist didn’t work, or if a medication didn’t work, that nothing would ever work.” She cuts straight to the heart of the frustrating cycle patients of depression and other diagnoses face while seeking help.

But it’s so worth it. Bialik tells viewers: “Something will work. It’s just going to take more research, sometimes more referrals, and really figuring things out like your life depends on it.”

“Because for me,” she says, “It did.”

If you won’t take it from a school counselor or a government PSA, take it from Amy Farrah Fowler: Your mind and your existence are precious. Prioritizing your wellness in a world that wont can be unbelievably frustrating. But people like Mayim Bialik went first and paved the way so you could come next and blossom.

Jenny Singer is a writer for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$90 $180

$360

Other amount